0. Prerequisites

All you need to bring is a sense of adventure! ...and a laptop with a USB port.

If you plan to follow the guided workshop (Feather HUZZAH + Firmata/Johnny-Five), download and install

• Arduino IDE, v. 1.6.4 or greater
• git
• node with npm v3 or greater
• USB driver installer Mac users: See note below
• A simple code editor such as Atom, Sublime, or Code

If you don't want to follow the guided workshop, you may also choose another technology such as flasher.js; you will still likely need node with npm v3 or greater, the USB driver installer Mac users: See note below, and a simple code editor such as Atom, Sublime, or Code

During the course of the workshop, you may also need to download of some libraries/tools via npm install or git clone, but these do not need to be done in advance.

Note for Mac OS X users installing USB drivers

The USB driver installation process was a little tricky for me--I ended up running the installer, then navigating to the folders created by it, finding the OS X folders, and running another installer inside there. The Arduino IDE didn't recognize the COM port at first. I tried a combination of restarting the machine with the device plugged in, changing ports, and changing cables 'til it just worked, but it wasn't clear what exactly was the magic combination that got it up and running. You can see some debugging information here. If you are unable to get this working on a Mac, see if you can borrow a PC for a bit--you only need to flash the device once.